Crowd-sourced soil data for Europe

Since its launch by the UK Natural Environment Research Council in June 2012, the free iPhone app mySoil has attracted more than 2.6 million web hits and 12,500 dedicated users (see go.nature.com/ty1ukf). Next month, a new version will extend its coverage to soils in the European Union (EU).

Users of mySoil can currently view soil maps of the United Kingdom (excluding Northern Ireland) that provide regional information on soil depth, texture, pH and organic-matter content, and on vegetation habitats. They can upload photos and descriptions of their local soils. More than 500 entries have so far contributed to this valuable data bank of soil properties in different localities.

The remarkable success of collecting data in this way reflects widespread public interest and promotes communication with the science community.

With infrastructure covering an estimated average of 9% of the EU — often spread across the most productive soils — and with sustainable land management becoming increasingly urgent, mySoil's democratization of soil data is a timely development.